So my good friend Amarina tags me on FB, with this request that i share the 12 albums that have affected me most deeply. Don’t think too much about it, just what springs to mind. And yes, i should have kept that initial list, but i had to think about it, didn’t i. Pretty soon that top 12 blew out to 50, and i’m wrestling with the order, trying to get them all to fit into the magical number limit. “I’m choosing 13,” i told her, breaking all the rules.

Here’s the whole dang lot:

**The Top 13**

2020 – b(if)tek
For the Roses – Joni Mitchell
Diva – Soundtrack
Plastic Letters – Blondie
Buena Vista Social Club
South Bronx Story – Esg
Touch – Eurythmics
Exit Planet Dust – Chemical Brothers
True Colours – Split Enz
Confessions on a Dance Floor – Madonna
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris – Soundtrack
Rodgers & Hart Songbook – Ella Fitzgerald
Gossip – Paul Kelly

The next 13

Let’s Get Killed – David Holmes
Nestegg – Spoonbill
Multiply – Jamie Lidell
The Albatross – West Side Circus
Dogs in Space – Soundtrack
Love and Entropy – Lisa Salvo
Colour the Small One – Sia
Demon Days – Gorillaz
Kicking against the Pricks – Nick Cave
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 – Midnight Oil
Kick – Inxs
Sign o the Times – Prince
Let It Die – Feist

The third 13

Ok Computer – Radiohead
The World Won’t Listen – The Smiths
Recurring Dream – Crowded House
Signs of Life – Penguin Cafe Orchestra
Bridge over Troubled Water – Simon & Garfunkel
Treasure – Cocteau Twins
Aladdin Sane – David Bowie
Leftism – Leftfield
Back to Black – Amy Winehouse
Geogaddi – Boards Of Canada
G Love and Special Sauce – G Love and Special Sauce
Lemonjelly.ky – Lemon Jelly
New Skin for The Old Ceremony – Leonard Cohen

..and the final 11

Made of Bricks – Kate Nash
Koyaanisqatsi – Soundtrack
Cold and the Crackle – Not Drowning Waving
East – Cold Chisel
Messenger – Jimmy Little
Bing Bing Bing – Charlie Hunter Trio
Madonna – Madonna
Mars Needs Guitars – Hoodoo Gurus
Pin-ups – David Bowie
Horses – Patti Smith
Grease – Soundtrack